Birth of Herbert R Bergeler - .
Nation: Germany; USA. Summary: German-American expert in guided missiles during World War II. Worked his entire life with the rocket team, at Peenemuende, Fort Bliss, White Stands, and then at Huntsville. Died at Huntsville, Alabama..

1915 May 16 - .

Birth of Albert E Schuler - .
Nation: Germany; USA. Summary: German engineer in WW2, member of the Rocket Team in the United States thereafter..

International Geophysical Year Committee established. - .
Nation: USA. Spacecraft: Vanguard 2; Sputnik 3. Summary: The Special Committee for the International Polar Year (later designated the International Geophysical Year), was established..

Jupiter A - .
Nation: USA. Agency: USA. Apogee: 90 km (55 mi). RS-19 was launched at 2322 hours EST from AMR. The flight was successful. The actual range was 169.4 nm; 13 nm over the intended impact point. Cut-off wee given by the alcohol depletion switch that sensed alcohol injector pressure drop-off. Takeoff occurred 0.156 seconds after firing. The missile followed the correct trajectory with no obvious deviation. Missile cut-off occurred later than predicted and caused the missile to impact approximately 6.5 nm long, During descent the warhead turned left, causing impact to be several miles to the left of the aiming azimuth line. The primary test objectives were to test the angle-of-attack meter hardware (Jupiter control). Missed aimpoint by 25,100 m.

First DRG Rocket Mail - .
Nation: Germany. First launches from Arensch to Berensch of DRG (German Rocket Society) 'postcard rockets'. 100 would be launched in the next two years. Ten launches were made carrying 5000 postcards. The subsonic 5 kg rockets were 2 m long, produced 50 kgf thrust, were recovered under three or four parachutes, and had an average accuracy of 130 m over a 3 km range.

Bykovsky's ordeal in Vostok-5 hot mock-up to be ended on third day. - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Cooper; Bykovsky. Flight: Vostok 5; Mercury MA-9. Spacecraft: Vostok. Summary: It is decided that extending Bykovskiy's ordeal in the hot mock-up to a third day makes no sense. The IAKM doctors are utterly incompetent. Cooper has landed after a successful flight. The US is now hot on our tail in the space race. .

Landing of Mercury MA-9 - .
Return Crew: Cooper. Nation: USA. Related Persons: Cooper. Program: Mercury. Flight: Mercury MA-9. After 22 orbits, virtually all spacecraft systems had failed, and Cooper manually fired the retrorockets and the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere, landing safely in the Pacific Ocean at 23:24 GMT, 34 hours, 19 minutes, and 49 seconds after liftoff. Cooper was reported in good condition, and this turned out to be the final Mercury flight.

Voskhod 3 delays - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Tyulin. Program: Voskhod. Flight: Voskhod 3. Spacecraft: Voskhod. Tyulin has already warned that military crews at Baikonur are 'going slow' in Voskhod 3 preparations. Now it is reported from Voronezh that the military quality control official is refusing to certify the engines for the third stage of Voskhod 3 as ready for flight. It is clear that the flight will slip into June at this rate...

Cosmonauts in Leningrad - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Shatalov. The cosmonauts tour Leningrad, visiting the sites of the October Revolution - the Battleship Aurora, Winter Palace, etc. Except for Shatalov and Kamanin, none had ever been there before. They also visited subcontractor premises and military units involved in the space programme.

Venera 5 lands on Venus - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Keldysh. Spacecraft: Venera 2V (V-69). Summary: Keldysh first revealed the new 'party line' at a press conference on the mission. When asked about Soviet lunar plans, he revealed that Russia would only use robot probes, that it wouldn't risk men's lives in such an endeavour..

1969 May 16 - .

Myth 'we were never in the moon race' disseminated by the Soviet Union - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Keldysh; Babakin. Program: Luna; Apollo; Lunar L3; Lunar L1. Flight: Apollo 11. Spacecraft: Luna Ye-8-5. Keldysh first revealed the new 'party line' at a press conference on the semi-successful Venera 5 landing on Venus. When asked about Soviet lunar plans, he revealed that Russia would only use robot probes, that it wouldn't risk men's lives in such an endeavour. At the same time Babakin was hard at work finishing the first Ye-8-5 robot lunar soil return spacecraft, to be launched before Apollo 11.

A VVS Military Soviet is held for Soyuz 9. - .
Nation: USSR. Related Persons: Nikolayev; Sevastyanov. Program: Soyuz. Flight: Soyuz 9. Summary: The three crews all passed their examinations, physicals, and have been certified as having completed their training..

Gauchito life support system tests. - .
Nation: Argentina. Program: X-Prize. Spacecraft: Gauchito. Pablo de León (Buenos Aires, Argentina tested his vehicle's life support systems, pressure suit, and environment controls using several high altitude glider flights to 30,000 feet using their space suit system. The suit also underwent several thermal tests in a cold chamber (-35
Centigrade) and external temperatures were sustained for more than 2 hours.

2008 May 16 - .

ISS EO-17: Progress Docks to Space Station - .
Summary: A new Progress cargo carrier docked to the Earth-facing port of the International Space Station's Zarya module at 5:39 p.m. EDT Friday with more than 2.3 tons of fuel, oxygen, air, water, propellant and other supplies and equipment aboard. . Additional Details: ISS EO-17: Progress Docks to Space Station.